Fox News host: 'Gosh, everything is so expensive'

While it is well known that Fox News hosts typically avoid saying anything that could reflect poorly on President Donald Trump or the Republican Party, sometimes they just can’t help themselves. Appearing on Fox and Friends Tuesday morning, host Ainsley Earhardt let loose an unguarded reaction to news that the costs of child-rearing have skyrocketed, saying, “Gosh, everything is so expensive.”

She was facing the news that since 2023, the cost of raising a child has shot up to an average of over $300,000. Hawaii is the most expensive state, costing $412,661, while New Hampshire is the most affordable at $201,963.

“It’s expensive to raise a child,” said Earhardt. “It’s gone up 30% actually, nearly 30% over the past three years.”

“Right,” said co-host Brian Kilmeade. “And that’s by the way the bare minimum.”

This comes as Americans grapple with a cost-of-living crisis in general. While inflation became a key concern in the wake of the pandemic — which exit polls showed was the determining factor in pushing voters to reject another Democratic presidency in favor of Trump’s promises of lower prices — a recently released report from the Labor Department shows that inflation has surged since Joe Biden left office, with price hikes driven largely by tariffs and the economic consequences of the war on Iran.

All of this has experts warning that consumer spending — often referred to as the “engine” of the economy — is weakening as Americans lose the confidence to spend freely. This has many making tough financial decisions, “Like do we need to have a third meal a day?”

This squeeze is felt even more acutely by parents, who as Earhardt noted, have even more expenses, such as school supplies, college tuition, clothing and sports uniforms, and a lot more. As these costs pile up, they can force people to cut from other important areas, like an emergency fund or retirement.

According to Matt Schulz, chief consumer finance analyst at LendingTree, who authored the study on rising childcare costs, “It just turns a really challenging situation into an almost unmanageable one for people.”